$9 SQ8 may be the World’s Smallest Car Dash Camera / Action Camera

There are so many car dash DVRs and action cameras on the market that barely differentiate themselves on the market that I don’t usually write about those anymore. But SQ8 “mini car video recorder full HD sports DV camera” caught my eye First, because at $8.99 on GeekBuying it’s really cheap, but most importantly because it’s incredibly tiny, even smaller than JeVois computer vision camera I reviewed last year. SQ8 camera specifications: Chipset – “AnGuo” Storage – micro SD card up to 32 GB Camera 12MP CMOS image sensor for 1080p30 videos  (AVI/MJPG) 65 Degrees Wide Angle 3mm lens Motion Detection, Night Vision Audio – Built-in microphone/speacker (AAC) USB – 1x mini USB port Misc – On/off and mode buttons, reset pinhole, LED indicator Battery – 200 mAh good for about 100 minutes Dimensions – 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.0 cm Weight – 25 grams Operating Temperature –  0 – 60 […]

e-con Systems Introduces a 4K Multi-Camera System for NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2 Boards

4K Camera Kit NVIDIA Jetson TX1 / TX2

Last year, e-con Systems launched a 360° Camera Kit for NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2 boards that featured 6 cameras capable of recording or streaming 1080p30 each in real-time. The company is now back with a multi-camera system with “only”  three cameras, but each can handle uncompressed video up to 4K UHD resolution at 30 fps. Meet e-CAM130_TRICUTX2 kit. Specification for the 4K Multi-camera system: Camera Modules – 3x e-CAM137_CUMI1335_MOD 13.0 MP Camera Module with S-mount lens holder Resolutions & frame rates (YUV422) VGA up to 30 fps (sync), up to 100 fps (async) HD (720p) up to 30 fps (sync), up to 72 fps (async) Full HD (1080p) up to 30 fps (sync), up to 72 fps (async) 4K up to 30 fps 13MP (4192 x 3120) up to 19 fps (async mode only) Baseboard with: 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface to connect with the CPU On board PWM generator circuit and external […]

Microsoft Introduces Project Kinect for Azure

Kinect started as as motion sensing input device for Xbox 360 & One game consoles with an integrated webcam, infrared projector, and a microphone array, which enabled it to detect depth, motion, and voice from gamers. But it also become popular with maker projects due to price and capabilities, and was even found to be a worthy microphone array for voice commands. The third generation of Kinect went into Hololense mixed reality headset, and Microsoft has just unveiled the fourth generation Kinect with Project Kinect for Azure. AFAIK, the company did not provide the full technical details about the new Kinect, but we know it comes with an RGB camera, a 360-degree mic array, an accelerometer, and a time-of-flight (ToF) depth-sensor, and the company did offer some details about the latter : Number of pixels: 1024×1024 resolution Highest Figure of Merit (highest modulation frequency and modulation contrast resulting in low […]

Lenovo Introduces Mirage Solo Daydream Standalone Virtual Reality Headset & Mirage Camera for VR180 Video Recording

Standalone / All-in-One Android virtual reality headsets have been around for a couple of years, mostly from Chinese vendors.  But the number and quality of VR apps available were rather low at the time, and those VR headsets were mostly useful to watch 360°  & VR videos. This may explain why larger companies had not launched any standalone headset so far, but this week everything changed, as Facebook started selling their Oculus Go virtual reality headset , and Google & Lenovo have just jointly announced the availability of Mirage Solo, the first standalone VR headset compatible with Google Daydream. Lenovo Mirage Solo specifications: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 VR processor System Memory – 4 GB RAM Storage –  64 GB UFS flash,  microSD Card slot up to 256 GB Display – 5.5″  QHD (2560 x 1440) LCD display @ 75 Hz Lenses – 2 x Fresnel-Aspheric 110° FOV Camera – Dual […]

Eufy EverCam Full HD Waterproof WiFi Security Camera Works for Up to a Year on a Single Battery Charge

Wired security cameras can be troublesome to installed due to the cabling required, but luckily there are solutions to avoid all those long cables with solar powered IP cameras, or battery powered IP cameras. A few years ago I wrote about Immedia Blink WiFi HD camera that claimed to last a year on a charge, and despite several complains on Kickstarter, they seem to still be in business.  There’s now a more advanced model by Eufy – an Anker brand – that supports 1080p video recording with motion sensing and face recognition, that also lasts up to one year on a charge, and offers free storage. Eufy EverCam specifications: Resolution – 1080p Video Format – H.264 High profile Image Sensor – Sony Exmor IMX323, 1/2 9-inch Field of View (FoV) – 140° Night Vision Range – up to 10 meters Digital Pan & Zoom  – Yes, up to 8x Motion […]

Alfawise JD-T8610-Q2 is Both a WiFi Light Bulb and 360° IP Camera

Alfawise-IP-Camera-Light-Bulb

IP cameras and WiFi light bulbs are pretty common nowadays, but Alfawise JD-T8610-W2 combines both in a single device. The 3W white light bulb can be controlled with your Android/iOS smartphone to adjust the light, and a 360° camera with IR night vision is also built into the light bulb. Specifications: Camera + audio 1.3MP fisheye lens camera with 360° field of view (FOV) Built-in microphone and speaker Video / Audio format – H.264/AVI 960×960 @ 20 fps + audio (no format specified) Functions Interphone Motion detection up to 4 meters Night vision via 3 IR LEDs up to 8 meters Real-time video capture and recording Remote control Screenshot Storage – micro SD card slot up to 64GB Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption, 10 meters range Protocols: DHCP, TCP/IP, RTSP Light – 3x 1W white light Power Supply – 110-240V via E27 socket (5V DC internally) […]

Qualcomm QCS603/QCS605 “IoT” SoCs are Designed for AI and Computer Vision Applications

QCS605-Camera-Reference-Design-Large

Qualcomm has unveiled the “Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform”, which aims at IoT devices with cameras leveraging artificial intelligence and computer vision. The first SoCs part of the platform are QCS605 and QCS603 manufactured with a 10nm process and equipped with an “advanced image signal processor” and the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine, as well Arm CPU cluster, Adreno GPU, and Hexagon DSP. QCS603 & QCS605 specifications: CPU QCS603 – 2x 1.6GHz Qualcomm Kryo 300 Gold cores, 2x 1.7GHz Qualcomm Kryo 300 Silver cores QCS605 – 2x 2.5GHz Qualcomm Kryo 300 Gold cores, 6x 1.7GHz Qualcomm Kryo 300 Silver cores Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine DSP Qualcomm Hexagon 685 Vector Processor 2x Qualcomm Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 615 with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan, OpenCL support Neural Processing – Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine programming interface with support for Tensorflow, Caffe/Caffe2, ONNE, Android NN; 2.1 TOPS @ 1w Memory […]

Connect Up to 16 Pi Cameras to Raspberry Pi with IVport V2 Camera Multiplexer Board

The Pi camera is a popular add-on for the Raspberry Pi boards, it connects to the MIPI CSI connector of the board, and offers better performance than USB cameras. But we are now seeing computer vision applications using more than one camera with stereo vision, 360 degree camera setups, and so on. One way would be to connect a Pi camera, and use the USB ports for the extra cameras, but Canerdurmusoglu had another idea, and instead designed IVport V2 Camera Multiplexer Board allowing you to connect up to four official Pi cameras to a single Raspberry Pi board. The maximum number of supported cameras is 16 since several boards can be daisy- chained. IVport V2 works with Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2 (8MP version), and you can switch between cameras using 3 GPIO pins. If I understand correctly that setup does not allows you to use all the cameras […]